Against the Wind: Cuttlefish (Japan) vs. Q-Ball (Allies)
Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition
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Cuttlefish
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RE: Cuttlefish Learns a Lesson
[font="Arial"]I have instructions from the Admiralty to withdraw His Majesty’s ships from Java when resistance will serve no useful purpose. This time, in my judgment, has come.[/font]
- British naval commander, Java, to Vice Admiral Helfrich, following the Battle of the Java Sea
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1/22/42 – 1/24/42
When Q-Ball attacked at Balikpapan I turned Kido Butai around and brought them down the Makassar Strait into the Java Sea. They haven’t found any warships but they have found some tankers and oilers. The ones at Tjilitjap were busy loading fuel. In return for these attentions SBD-2s out of Soerabaja bounced four 1000-lb bombs off Nagato as Japanese battleships entered the Java Sea from the other end to rendezvous with KB. Damage was so slight that I suspect that some of those hits were fog of war.
Luzon: the second Japanese attack at Clark did much better than the first one. The odds were 1-2 instead of the 1-7 of the first attack and casualties were much closer to even, around 4400 Japanese to 3800 Allied. Back to bombing and shelling for another week or so.
DEI: see the picture below for KB’s doings. Balikpapan fell after three days of fighting. Invasion forces are loading for Sambas and Singkawang and troops are prepping for Kendari.
Burma: Toungoo was captured 22 January and 33rd Division is nearing Prome.
Pacific: hold the phone on the Port Moresby operation. As 144th Regiment troops were loading at Rabaul recon planes out of Lae spotted a large concentration of troops at Port Moresby. They had either a.) somehow been missed, or b.) their Romulan-built cloaking technology just failed and they don’t have any spare parts. 144th Regiment’s troops were ordered off the ships and I will wait for the 53rd Division, now at Truk.
Submarine warfare: I-15 sank TK Halo near French Frigate Shoals. O23 hit CL Tama with a torpedo at Balikpapan and if I hadn’t taken the base next turn that would have been it for Tama. As it is the flooding is down from 95 to 87 but the ship’s survival is still in doubt. An Allied sub sank an xAK up near Sakhalin.
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Japanese carrier moves and attacks in the Java Sea, Jan. 23-24:
- British naval commander, Java, to Vice Admiral Helfrich, following the Battle of the Java Sea
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1/22/42 – 1/24/42
When Q-Ball attacked at Balikpapan I turned Kido Butai around and brought them down the Makassar Strait into the Java Sea. They haven’t found any warships but they have found some tankers and oilers. The ones at Tjilitjap were busy loading fuel. In return for these attentions SBD-2s out of Soerabaja bounced four 1000-lb bombs off Nagato as Japanese battleships entered the Java Sea from the other end to rendezvous with KB. Damage was so slight that I suspect that some of those hits were fog of war.
Luzon: the second Japanese attack at Clark did much better than the first one. The odds were 1-2 instead of the 1-7 of the first attack and casualties were much closer to even, around 4400 Japanese to 3800 Allied. Back to bombing and shelling for another week or so.
DEI: see the picture below for KB’s doings. Balikpapan fell after three days of fighting. Invasion forces are loading for Sambas and Singkawang and troops are prepping for Kendari.
Burma: Toungoo was captured 22 January and 33rd Division is nearing Prome.
Pacific: hold the phone on the Port Moresby operation. As 144th Regiment troops were loading at Rabaul recon planes out of Lae spotted a large concentration of troops at Port Moresby. They had either a.) somehow been missed, or b.) their Romulan-built cloaking technology just failed and they don’t have any spare parts. 144th Regiment’s troops were ordered off the ships and I will wait for the 53rd Division, now at Truk.
Submarine warfare: I-15 sank TK Halo near French Frigate Shoals. O23 hit CL Tama with a torpedo at Balikpapan and if I hadn’t taken the base next turn that would have been it for Tama. As it is the flooding is down from 95 to 87 but the ship’s survival is still in doubt. An Allied sub sank an xAK up near Sakhalin.
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Japanese carrier moves and attacks in the Java Sea, Jan. 23-24:
- Attachments
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- javasea_012442.jpg (195.31 KiB) Viewed 209 times
RE: Cuttlefish Learns a Lesson
Nice graphics, sir. And good work. A Burman Blitzkrieg.. is this a success you're interested in exploiting?
I'm amused that both you and Q-Ball are using Star Trek references..
I'm amused that both you and Q-Ball are using Star Trek references..
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Cuttlefish
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RE: Cuttlefish Learns a Lesson
ORIGINAL: Alikchi
Nice graphics, sir. And good work. A Burman Blitzkrieg.. is this a success you're interested in exploiting?
I'm amused that both you and Q-Ball are using Star Trek references..
That is funny about the Star Trek references. I guess we really are well matched. As for Burma, yes indeed. I thought about slowing down because I don't have enough units to guard my flanks but have decided to throw caution to the winds and push forward as fast as I can. If his units are not disorganized and fleeing they are giving a convincing imitation of it and I don't want to give them time to regroup.
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Cuttlefish
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Prome wasn't built in a day
[font="Arial"]To a good general luck is important.[/font]
- Livy: History of Rome, c. 110 A.D.
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1/25/42 – 1/29/42
Kido Butai cruised up and down Java from 25 January to 27 January, sinking a couple of PT boats, ten small Dutch and British auxiliaries, and SS Sturgeon in port at Soerabaja. On the first day land-based Wildcats and Dauntlesses launched a big attack; 21 dive bombers got through but none scored any hits. I was very lucky there. A dozen Vildebeests also attacked, unescorted, and were all shot down. The final air to air tally on the day was 40 to 2.
Q-Ball sent Dutch bombers to Balikpapan, where they finished off a damaged destroyer and CL Tama. It was a nice move; I shot down 7 of the attackers but it well worth the cost for him.
Things have otherwise been more or less undramatic. Japanese forces captured Prome, in Burma, and continue driving north. Buna was taken, as was Sampit. Troops have landed at Singkawang and more are on the way, and troop-laden ships are departing Ambon to invade Kendari. Paratroops will land on nearby bases to support the Kendari invasion.
Japanese forces crashed into Singapore, led by the 21st Division. To my surprise that division did all the fighting and took all the casualties; the rest of the attacking force was untouched. This is much different than what I would have seen in WitP. While the 21st Div. recovers the rest of the invading force has begun shelling, inflicting between 1500 and 2000 casualties a day.
At Clark Field the attackers are almost back up to 1700 AV, so they will attack again on 31 January. The 53rd Division is halfway from Truk to Rabaul and from there they will kick off the Port Moresby invasion.
After being unexpectedly rocked by Q-Ballian forces several times in the first few weeks of the war I now have a feeling that momentum is with me, that my opponent is being forced to react to my moves. This will last only as long as I can maintain the current tempo. And keeping up the tempo is harder in AE than it was in WitP, I think. More advanced planning is required, there are more kinds of units and ships that need to be allocated and more factors to consider. It feels a little like running along a high wire while juggling. And of course I can’t discount the fact that Q-Ball is tricky and resourceful and is no doubt looking for ways to slow me down and recover some of that momentum.
- Livy: History of Rome, c. 110 A.D.
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1/25/42 – 1/29/42
Kido Butai cruised up and down Java from 25 January to 27 January, sinking a couple of PT boats, ten small Dutch and British auxiliaries, and SS Sturgeon in port at Soerabaja. On the first day land-based Wildcats and Dauntlesses launched a big attack; 21 dive bombers got through but none scored any hits. I was very lucky there. A dozen Vildebeests also attacked, unescorted, and were all shot down. The final air to air tally on the day was 40 to 2.
Q-Ball sent Dutch bombers to Balikpapan, where they finished off a damaged destroyer and CL Tama. It was a nice move; I shot down 7 of the attackers but it well worth the cost for him.
Things have otherwise been more or less undramatic. Japanese forces captured Prome, in Burma, and continue driving north. Buna was taken, as was Sampit. Troops have landed at Singkawang and more are on the way, and troop-laden ships are departing Ambon to invade Kendari. Paratroops will land on nearby bases to support the Kendari invasion.
Japanese forces crashed into Singapore, led by the 21st Division. To my surprise that division did all the fighting and took all the casualties; the rest of the attacking force was untouched. This is much different than what I would have seen in WitP. While the 21st Div. recovers the rest of the invading force has begun shelling, inflicting between 1500 and 2000 casualties a day.
At Clark Field the attackers are almost back up to 1700 AV, so they will attack again on 31 January. The 53rd Division is halfway from Truk to Rabaul and from there they will kick off the Port Moresby invasion.
After being unexpectedly rocked by Q-Ballian forces several times in the first few weeks of the war I now have a feeling that momentum is with me, that my opponent is being forced to react to my moves. This will last only as long as I can maintain the current tempo. And keeping up the tempo is harder in AE than it was in WitP, I think. More advanced planning is required, there are more kinds of units and ships that need to be allocated and more factors to consider. It feels a little like running along a high wire while juggling. And of course I can’t discount the fact that Q-Ball is tricky and resourceful and is no doubt looking for ways to slow me down and recover some of that momentum.
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Cuttlefish
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- Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 5:03 am
- Location: Oregon, USA
RE: Prome wasn't built in a day
[font="Arial"]Without a staff, an army could not peel a potato.[/font]
- Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett, USA, 1857-1935
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1/30/42
As January ’42 nears an end I’ve been evaluating Japan’s industry. Even in WitP I discovered (often the hard way) that there were many possible ways for the Japanese player to shoot himself in the industrial foot. AE no doubt has new and interesting ways for the Japanese player to do so.
Before getting any further into the subject, though, let me thank those responsible for creating WitP Staff and bundling it with the game. I would much rather spend my game time planning attacks than manually tracking industrial statistics and the utility lets me do that, because it keeps track for me. Very nice!
Anyway, certain early trends are noticeable. Supply and fuel are actually increasing in the Home Islands. Oil and resource stocks, however, are slowly eroding. It isn’t serious yet, but it will be.
Actually, when I say Home Islands I really mean Honshu. WitP Staff reports that Hokkaido and Kyushu actually produce more resources than they consume; all of the shortfall is on the main island. I have been hauling oil and resources from Korea and Sakhalin Island (Toyohara on Sakhalin currently has more than 500,000 resources) but this has only slowed the rate of loss, not halted it. I just discovered that the small port of Kushiro on the south coast of Hokkaido now has a whopping 922,000 resources, enough to supply Honshu for months. But it’s a size three port, so loading ships there is going to be very slow.
I have the same problem at the big refinery centers I’ve captured. Miri, for example, has fuel going to waste for lack of storage space. I have tankers there but they take forever to load. I need to look at my available hulls and maybe put a bunch of small tankers to work carrying the fuel from there to someplace like Camranh Bay, where larger ships could pick it up and take it to Honshu. The only trouble with that is that more convoys means more escorts and I am already stretched thin in this area. I also think that I need to divert some scarce naval support from military operations to industrial operations.
Running an evil empire is not all a bed of roses.
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I have been slow and careful in fiddling with my aircraft production. For one thing, almost every change I make in airframes needs a corresponding change in aircraft engine production. In WitP it was “Am I making enough Nakajima engines? Then I’m good to go.” Now I find myself blundering through a veritable minefield of engine types.
I produced Nates through the end of January. I now have 107 in the pool, so Nate production has been halted. Meanwhile there are enough Oscars in the pool to begin upgrading the Nates. I can’t complain about the job the Nates have done for me, though; they have been valuable workhorses so far.
I have begun producing a modest number of Kates, and Ida production has been shifted to the much superior Lily. My Lilies are heavily involved in bombing Clark (from Aparri, now a level 5 airfield) and flak and ops losses are taking a slow and steady toll on them. When the Lily pool gets a bit bigger (it’s at 40 now) I will begin converting some of the Ida units.
Zero production has been increased about 50%. Zero losses have actually been pretty light so far and I have over 100 planes in the pool already but experience tells me I will need a lot more planes than that before it’s all over.
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Tune in next week when we discuss string theory, quantum mechanics, and which Japanese merchant ship classes to convert to what.
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The points screen from 1/31/42:
- Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett, USA, 1857-1935
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1/30/42
As January ’42 nears an end I’ve been evaluating Japan’s industry. Even in WitP I discovered (often the hard way) that there were many possible ways for the Japanese player to shoot himself in the industrial foot. AE no doubt has new and interesting ways for the Japanese player to do so.
Before getting any further into the subject, though, let me thank those responsible for creating WitP Staff and bundling it with the game. I would much rather spend my game time planning attacks than manually tracking industrial statistics and the utility lets me do that, because it keeps track for me. Very nice!
Anyway, certain early trends are noticeable. Supply and fuel are actually increasing in the Home Islands. Oil and resource stocks, however, are slowly eroding. It isn’t serious yet, but it will be.
Actually, when I say Home Islands I really mean Honshu. WitP Staff reports that Hokkaido and Kyushu actually produce more resources than they consume; all of the shortfall is on the main island. I have been hauling oil and resources from Korea and Sakhalin Island (Toyohara on Sakhalin currently has more than 500,000 resources) but this has only slowed the rate of loss, not halted it. I just discovered that the small port of Kushiro on the south coast of Hokkaido now has a whopping 922,000 resources, enough to supply Honshu for months. But it’s a size three port, so loading ships there is going to be very slow.
I have the same problem at the big refinery centers I’ve captured. Miri, for example, has fuel going to waste for lack of storage space. I have tankers there but they take forever to load. I need to look at my available hulls and maybe put a bunch of small tankers to work carrying the fuel from there to someplace like Camranh Bay, where larger ships could pick it up and take it to Honshu. The only trouble with that is that more convoys means more escorts and I am already stretched thin in this area. I also think that I need to divert some scarce naval support from military operations to industrial operations.
Running an evil empire is not all a bed of roses.
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I have been slow and careful in fiddling with my aircraft production. For one thing, almost every change I make in airframes needs a corresponding change in aircraft engine production. In WitP it was “Am I making enough Nakajima engines? Then I’m good to go.” Now I find myself blundering through a veritable minefield of engine types.
I produced Nates through the end of January. I now have 107 in the pool, so Nate production has been halted. Meanwhile there are enough Oscars in the pool to begin upgrading the Nates. I can’t complain about the job the Nates have done for me, though; they have been valuable workhorses so far.
I have begun producing a modest number of Kates, and Ida production has been shifted to the much superior Lily. My Lilies are heavily involved in bombing Clark (from Aparri, now a level 5 airfield) and flak and ops losses are taking a slow and steady toll on them. When the Lily pool gets a bit bigger (it’s at 40 now) I will begin converting some of the Ida units.
Zero production has been increased about 50%. Zero losses have actually been pretty light so far and I have over 100 planes in the pool already but experience tells me I will need a lot more planes than that before it’s all over.
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Tune in next week when we discuss string theory, quantum mechanics, and which Japanese merchant ship classes to convert to what.
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The points screen from 1/31/42:
- Attachments
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- victory_013142.jpg (80.05 KiB) Viewed 209 times
RE: Prome wasn't built in a day
Yeah that would be about right.[;)]Tune in next week when we discuss string theory, quantum mechanics, and which Japanese merchant ship classes to convert to what.
Appear at places to which he must hasten; move swiftly where he does not expect you.
Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu
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Mike Solli
- Posts: 15890
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- Location: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
RE: Prome wasn't built in a day
ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish
Actually, when I say Home Islands I really mean Honshu. WitP Staff reports that Hokkaido and Kyushu actually produce more resources than they consume; all of the shortfall is on the main island. I have been hauling oil and resources from Korea and Sakhalin Island (Toyohara on Sakhalin currently has more than 500,000 resources) but this has only slowed the rate of loss, not halted it. I just discovered that the small port of Kushiro on the south coast of Hokkaido now has a whopping 922,000 resources, enough to supply Honshu for months. But it’s a size three port, so loading ships there is going to be very slow.
Ahh Cuttlefish, you have hit upon the two toughest nuts to crack concerning Japanese resource movement. I'm staring at my spreadsheet detailing how I'm going to feed the Honshu resource beast and can do it with 1 convoy per base with the exception of the two bases you mentioned. My initial idea was to have the unload point as close to the load point as possible. That won't work with Toyohara and Kushiro. If you pick a base further out, you can have multiple TFs moving stuff to Honshu. Increasing their port sizes is also an option, but I suspect it'll be expensive.
Created by the amazing Dixie
RE: Prome wasn't built in a day
Maybe a quick look at the WitpTracker Engine/Aircraft Planning screen might help here ... both Utils have different and useful feature sets.I have been slow and careful in fiddling with my aircraft production. For one thing, almost every change I make in airframes needs a corresponding change in aircraft engine production. In WitP it was “Am I making enough Nakajima engines? Then I’m good to go.” Now I find myself blundering through a veritable minefield of engine types.
And the next Tracker release will have Ship conversion info too..Tune in next week when we discuss string theory, quantum mechanics, and which Japanese merchant ship classes to convert to what.
RE: Prome wasn't built in a day
Yep evil empire eats a lot. By the way who said that HI has excess of refirment ? Witp Staff says that I consume 12100 fuel and produce only 8800.
Oil usage is 8800 and production is just above 1000.
So to run industry japan player must deliver 7800 oil per day
And 100 000 resources per day
Oil usage is 8800 and production is just above 1000.
So to run industry japan player must deliver 7800 oil per day
And 100 000 resources per day
RE: Prome wasn't built in a day
Cuttlefish and Mike Solli,
Mike, I've been following your work on production issues and would like to propose an alternative approach to the issue. Do you think that it might prove cost effective to increase the size of HI closer to captured oil and refinery sites? The idea is to lessen the distance transports carrying resources and oil would have to travel thus saving the expenditure of fuel. I realize that this would place an inreased emphasis on the capture of manpower facilities.
Caliban
Mike, I've been following your work on production issues and would like to propose an alternative approach to the issue. Do you think that it might prove cost effective to increase the size of HI closer to captured oil and refinery sites? The idea is to lessen the distance transports carrying resources and oil would have to travel thus saving the expenditure of fuel. I realize that this would place an inreased emphasis on the capture of manpower facilities.
Caliban
RE: Prome wasn't built in a day
Don't think manpower would be much of a problem, but supply might well be.
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Mike Solli
- Posts: 15890
- Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2000 8:00 am
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RE: Prome wasn't built in a day
ORIGINAL: Caliban
Cuttlefish and Mike Solli,
Mike, I've been following your work on production issues and would like to propose an alternative approach to the issue. Do you think that it might prove cost effective to increase the size of HI closer to captured oil and refinery sites? The idea is to lessen the distance transports carrying resources and oil would have to travel thus saving the expenditure of fuel. I realize that this would place an inreased emphasis on the capture of manpower facilities.
Caliban
Caliban, let's take this up in the War Room so we don't clutter up Cuttlefish's wonderful AAR.
Created by the amazing Dixie
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Cuttlefish
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- Location: Oregon, USA
RE: Prome wasn't built in a day
ORIGINAL: Mike Solli
Caliban, let's take this up in the War Room so we don't clutter up Cuttlefish's wonderful AAR.
Thanks, Mike, though obviously this is an area of great interest to me. I've been reading the thread in the War Room and I'll pick up the discussion there.
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Cuttlefish
- Posts: 2454
- Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 5:03 am
- Location: Oregon, USA
RE: Prome wasn't built in a day
ORIGINAL: n01487477
Maybe a quick look at the WitpTracker Engine/Aircraft Planning screen might help here ... both Utils have different and useful feature sets.I have been slow and careful in fiddling with my aircraft production. For one thing, almost every change I make in airframes needs a corresponding change in aircraft engine production. In WitP it was “Am I making enough Nakajima engines? Then I’m good to go.” Now I find myself blundering through a veritable minefield of engine types.
And the next Tracker release will have Ship conversion info too..Tune in next week when we discuss string theory, quantum mechanics, and which Japanese merchant ship classes to convert to what.
I've been wondering if it would be useful to load Tracker as well as Staff. It looks as though having both might be a good thing.
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Cuttlefish
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- Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 5:03 am
- Location: Oregon, USA
The KNILing Fields
[font="Arial"]It is dangerous to meddle with admirals when they say they can’t do things. They have always got the weather or fuel or something to argue about.[/font]
- Winston Churchill: to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, December 1941
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2/1/1942 – 2/4/1942
The “ever-victorious forces of the Japanese Empire” continue to advance everywhere, not necessarily swiftly but more or less relentlessly. Q-Ball’s forces have been quiet since the cruiser attack at Balikpapan on 19 January. I don’t for a minute believe this means he has gone completely over onto the defensive, however.
Luzon: the Japanese continue their once a week attacks at Clark, not yet achieving one to one odds but with the casualty ratio shifting rapidly in their favor. The three attacks so far and the resulting casualties:
If I can force his troops out of Clark before he can retreat them then his casualties will be so heavy that Bataan should fall quickly. That’s the hope at Cuttlefish HQ, anyway.
Singapore: after days of destructive bombardment the Japanese launched their first attack on 5 February. It came off at 2-1 odds and inflicted almost 6000 casualties on the defenders. The forts are at level 2. After one day of rest we will attack again, and this one might do the job. I hope so, because that would free up a lot of troops.
Burma: Japanese troops continue to advance northwards. The 33rd Division has now reached Magwe with no sign of serious resistance ahead. Base force units are finally nearing Rangoon, which will give me some air cover over the advance. It hasn’t been needed so far, but the further I advance the more l expect air attacks.
China: in the north things are static, with the Chinese still in Sinyang and stubbornly refusing to be driven out. In the south four Japanese divisions are outside Kanhsien and preparing to attack. There seem to be 11 defending units in the city but I think many of these are battered survivors of earlier battles.
DEI: on Borneo Japanese forces have taken Samarinda and Singkawang and forces are advancing down the road from Singkawang towards Pontiniak. On Celebes Kendari, Kolaka, and Gorontolo have all been taken.
An interesting aspect of taking bases in this area is that the Dutch defenders tend to flee into the jungle even if there is nowhere they can get to without weeks of marching through trackless terrain. They really can’t do any harm but they bother me, hanging around outside my bases and slowly starving. I might consider them guerillas except that the Dutch never tried that; they had angered the native people too much to make that successful.
CVL Shoho has entered the game and is heading down to join Ryujo and Zuiho in keeping an eye on this area. Together the three carriers have 36 Zeros and 30 Kates, a respectable punch.
Pacific: Japanese forces have taken Nukufetau and Tulagi. Tabiteuea has built up to a size 1 port and airfield, so it’s like a real base now.
The Port Moresby invasion force is loading at Rabaul. I keep expecting an Allied raid or something in this area but nothing has materialized. KB is back at Truk and planning further mischief so I feel a bit more secure now.
Under the Sea: The only successful sub attack during this period was mine, but it was a good one: an I-boat sank fuel-laden AO Ramapo en route to Midway.
Davy Jones’ Locker: a couple of turns ago my operations report said that BB California sank on 9 December, victim of a Type 91 torpedo. Now, the sunk ships list lies like a rug but so far as Q-Ball and I have been able to determine if a ship shows up as sunk in the ops report it’s really gone. So I have been taking it as given that California really did sink. The strange thing, though, is that the sunk ships list shows it going down near Patini on the coast of Malaya. Weird.
- Winston Churchill: to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, December 1941
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2/1/1942 – 2/4/1942
The “ever-victorious forces of the Japanese Empire” continue to advance everywhere, not necessarily swiftly but more or less relentlessly. Q-Ball’s forces have been quiet since the cruiser attack at Balikpapan on 19 January. I don’t for a minute believe this means he has gone completely over onto the defensive, however.
Luzon: the Japanese continue their once a week attacks at Clark, not yet achieving one to one odds but with the casualty ratio shifting rapidly in their favor. The three attacks so far and the resulting casualties:
Code: Select all
Casualties First attack Second attack Third attack
Japanese 9800 4400 2900
Allied 1500 3800 5900Singapore: after days of destructive bombardment the Japanese launched their first attack on 5 February. It came off at 2-1 odds and inflicted almost 6000 casualties on the defenders. The forts are at level 2. After one day of rest we will attack again, and this one might do the job. I hope so, because that would free up a lot of troops.
Burma: Japanese troops continue to advance northwards. The 33rd Division has now reached Magwe with no sign of serious resistance ahead. Base force units are finally nearing Rangoon, which will give me some air cover over the advance. It hasn’t been needed so far, but the further I advance the more l expect air attacks.
China: in the north things are static, with the Chinese still in Sinyang and stubbornly refusing to be driven out. In the south four Japanese divisions are outside Kanhsien and preparing to attack. There seem to be 11 defending units in the city but I think many of these are battered survivors of earlier battles.
DEI: on Borneo Japanese forces have taken Samarinda and Singkawang and forces are advancing down the road from Singkawang towards Pontiniak. On Celebes Kendari, Kolaka, and Gorontolo have all been taken.
An interesting aspect of taking bases in this area is that the Dutch defenders tend to flee into the jungle even if there is nowhere they can get to without weeks of marching through trackless terrain. They really can’t do any harm but they bother me, hanging around outside my bases and slowly starving. I might consider them guerillas except that the Dutch never tried that; they had angered the native people too much to make that successful.
CVL Shoho has entered the game and is heading down to join Ryujo and Zuiho in keeping an eye on this area. Together the three carriers have 36 Zeros and 30 Kates, a respectable punch.
Pacific: Japanese forces have taken Nukufetau and Tulagi. Tabiteuea has built up to a size 1 port and airfield, so it’s like a real base now.
The Port Moresby invasion force is loading at Rabaul. I keep expecting an Allied raid or something in this area but nothing has materialized. KB is back at Truk and planning further mischief so I feel a bit more secure now.
Under the Sea: The only successful sub attack during this period was mine, but it was a good one: an I-boat sank fuel-laden AO Ramapo en route to Midway.
Davy Jones’ Locker: a couple of turns ago my operations report said that BB California sank on 9 December, victim of a Type 91 torpedo. Now, the sunk ships list lies like a rug but so far as Q-Ball and I have been able to determine if a ship shows up as sunk in the ops report it’s really gone. So I have been taking it as given that California really did sink. The strange thing, though, is that the sunk ships list shows it going down near Patini on the coast of Malaya. Weird.
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BrucePowers
- Posts: 12090
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RE: The KNILing Fields
I can't resist....
"Together the three carriers have 36 Zeros and 30 Nells"
You have nells on your carriers[X(][:D]
"Together the three carriers have 36 Zeros and 30 Nells"
You have nells on your carriers[X(][:D]
For what we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful.
Lieutenant Bush - Captain Horatio Hornblower by C S Forester
Lieutenant Bush - Captain Horatio Hornblower by C S Forester
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Cuttlefish
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RE: The KNILing Fields
ORIGINAL: BrucePowers
I can't resist....
"Together the three carriers have 36 Zeros and 30 Nells"
You have nells on your carriers[X(][:D]
Whoops! Flying Nells off of light carriers would be a good trick, all right.
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BrucePowers
- Posts: 12090
- Joined: Sat Jul 03, 2004 6:13 pm
RE: The KNILing Fields
By the way, another very good AAR[:)]
For what we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful.
Lieutenant Bush - Captain Horatio Hornblower by C S Forester
Lieutenant Bush - Captain Horatio Hornblower by C S Forester
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Cuttlefish
- Posts: 2454
- Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 5:03 am
- Location: Oregon, USA
Tentacles of the Cuttlefish
[font="Arial"]Charge, and give no foot of ground.[/font]
- Shakespeare: King Henry VI, 1590
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2/5/1942 - 2/12/1942
The Japanese infantry has rested for five days while the artillery bombards Singapore. Now a shock attack has been ordered for the next turn. With any luck the gallant Japanese troops will win the day and Singapore will be mine.
This brings up the important question of what happens next. I think the capture of Singapore is an important moment for the Japanese player in each game. A lot of the available troop strength is usually tied up in the Malaya campaign and the question is always what to do with them once Singapore has fallen.
Some troops will be needed for the conquest of Sumatra, especially Palembang. The campaign in Burma continues to go very well, so there is no pressing need to rush troops there. I should have enough ships and troops available to mount a fresh campaign if I wish. But where? A landing in India does not seem like a wise move in AE. An invasion of Ceylon offers possibilities, perhaps. We will see. First Singapore must fall.
The Road to Mandalay: I’m just about there, actually, as the screen shot below shows. British forces seem to be evacuating and moving north. The 33rd Division pushed the 10th Burma Rifles Battalion out of Magwe; a tank regiment in reserve pursued them to Meiktila and captured that base on the following turn.
There is now plentiful air support at Rangoon and thus almost the entire Bay of Bengal is under the watchful eye of Japanese bombers.
Philippines: the siege at Clark continues. Several new infantry regiments recently arrived at Shanghai and I had enough PPs to buy one, the 56th, and send it on waiting ships down to Davao. It’s moving up to join the assault on Cagayan in the hopes of bringing the Mindanao campaign to a conclusion.
China: Japanese forces are now at Kanhsien and shelling the defenders for a while in preparation for an attack. In the meantime I have suffered my first reverse here; the Japanese 37th Division crossed the river west of Nanchang in hopes of descending on Kanhsien from the north and ran into much stronger units on the far bank than expected. It was thrown back across the river with heavy losses (see screen shot below).
Pacific: The 53rd Division has landed at Port Moresby. While the Australian defenders (the 49th Australian Battalion, the Port Moresby Brigade, and the 15th RAAF Base Force) still hold the place after two days of fighting the issue does not seem to be in doubt. Japan will prevail, probably prompting another gleeful broadcast by Orphan Anne. I love those sound clips.
Nukufetau has begun to be bombed by B-17s from an unknown location. The attacks are small and have done no damage so far. I have no air support there as yet so there is nothing to be done about it in any event.
Under the Sea: on 12 February I-157 sank both xAKL Benkalis and TK Talang Akar off of Exmouth way down on the southwest corner of Australia. Allied submarines have launched quite a few attacks in the past week but none of the torpedoes have detonated.
The two I-boats that hit mines at San Francisco have both survived and are now under repair in Japan.
Supply and Demand: I have moved a shipping engineer regiment to Miri and sent some construction troops to Kushiro to expand the port there. Because I have been careful in expanding facilities in the Home Islands my supplies and HI have actually increased since the start of the war. I had 50, 039 HI on 7 December; now I have 143,983. Supply has grown from 3,078,765 to 4,387,979 in the same period. Fuel shows a similar increase.
The problem is oil and resources. I started with 3,216,120 oil and 7,185,229 resources. These figures are now at 2,744,455 and 5,964,319. The rate of loss is decreasing but the trend shows that if I don’t increase the flow into Japan I am going to start running into trouble as early as June or July 1942.
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The situation in Burma:
- Shakespeare: King Henry VI, 1590
---
2/5/1942 - 2/12/1942
The Japanese infantry has rested for five days while the artillery bombards Singapore. Now a shock attack has been ordered for the next turn. With any luck the gallant Japanese troops will win the day and Singapore will be mine.
This brings up the important question of what happens next. I think the capture of Singapore is an important moment for the Japanese player in each game. A lot of the available troop strength is usually tied up in the Malaya campaign and the question is always what to do with them once Singapore has fallen.
Some troops will be needed for the conquest of Sumatra, especially Palembang. The campaign in Burma continues to go very well, so there is no pressing need to rush troops there. I should have enough ships and troops available to mount a fresh campaign if I wish. But where? A landing in India does not seem like a wise move in AE. An invasion of Ceylon offers possibilities, perhaps. We will see. First Singapore must fall.
The Road to Mandalay: I’m just about there, actually, as the screen shot below shows. British forces seem to be evacuating and moving north. The 33rd Division pushed the 10th Burma Rifles Battalion out of Magwe; a tank regiment in reserve pursued them to Meiktila and captured that base on the following turn.
There is now plentiful air support at Rangoon and thus almost the entire Bay of Bengal is under the watchful eye of Japanese bombers.
Philippines: the siege at Clark continues. Several new infantry regiments recently arrived at Shanghai and I had enough PPs to buy one, the 56th, and send it on waiting ships down to Davao. It’s moving up to join the assault on Cagayan in the hopes of bringing the Mindanao campaign to a conclusion.
China: Japanese forces are now at Kanhsien and shelling the defenders for a while in preparation for an attack. In the meantime I have suffered my first reverse here; the Japanese 37th Division crossed the river west of Nanchang in hopes of descending on Kanhsien from the north and ran into much stronger units on the far bank than expected. It was thrown back across the river with heavy losses (see screen shot below).
Pacific: The 53rd Division has landed at Port Moresby. While the Australian defenders (the 49th Australian Battalion, the Port Moresby Brigade, and the 15th RAAF Base Force) still hold the place after two days of fighting the issue does not seem to be in doubt. Japan will prevail, probably prompting another gleeful broadcast by Orphan Anne. I love those sound clips.
Nukufetau has begun to be bombed by B-17s from an unknown location. The attacks are small and have done no damage so far. I have no air support there as yet so there is nothing to be done about it in any event.
Under the Sea: on 12 February I-157 sank both xAKL Benkalis and TK Talang Akar off of Exmouth way down on the southwest corner of Australia. Allied submarines have launched quite a few attacks in the past week but none of the torpedoes have detonated.
The two I-boats that hit mines at San Francisco have both survived and are now under repair in Japan.
Supply and Demand: I have moved a shipping engineer regiment to Miri and sent some construction troops to Kushiro to expand the port there. Because I have been careful in expanding facilities in the Home Islands my supplies and HI have actually increased since the start of the war. I had 50, 039 HI on 7 December; now I have 143,983. Supply has grown from 3,078,765 to 4,387,979 in the same period. Fuel shows a similar increase.
The problem is oil and resources. I started with 3,216,120 oil and 7,185,229 resources. These figures are now at 2,744,455 and 5,964,319. The rate of loss is decreasing but the trend shows that if I don’t increase the flow into Japan I am going to start running into trouble as early as June or July 1942.
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The situation in Burma:
- Attachments
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